


Lock and Key

by Katybug1992



Series: Tumblr Prompts [129]
Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:54:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23372005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katybug1992/pseuds/Katybug1992
Summary: Patrick was a blip. That’s all he was supposed to be.AKA Jaden catches feelings and he is not good at handling it.
Relationships: Brayden Schenn & Jaden Schwartz, Patrick Kane/Jaden Schwartz
Series: Tumblr Prompts [129]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1139243
Kudos: 20





	Lock and Key

**Author's Note:**

> Quotes are from Schitt's Creek.

Patrick was a blip. That’s all he was supposed to be. A way for both of them to get out their frustration at how their seasons were going, how the previous season had gone. They had run into each other at a bar in Chicago, after the Blues had managed to eek out a win, not that it was doing any good since they were still hovering around the bottom of the standings. But Patrick had bought him a drink and pulled him onto the dance floor and had slipped out of the bar with him.

It wasn’t supposed to be serious. Jaden wasn’t supposed to actually catch feelings. Ask anyone. Jaden Schwartz didn’t do feelings. He was the stoic one. Sure, he could handle helping other people through theirs, he had a lot of practice with it, but he decided long ago that feelings just meant being hurt. How many times had he opened himself up to someone just to be burned? It was better for him to end things when he could, before Patrick broke his heart. Because sleeping with a Blackhawk was fine, but letting a Blackhawk have something as dumb as feelings to hold over his head was not okay. 

So, to protect himself, he ended things. And the season had turned around, the Blues season, and he needed to be one hundred percent focused on his hockey. And, while he got the Cup a few short months later, Patrick moved on. Jaden saw the pictures of them on Patrick’s Insta, saw them being a cute, straight couple, and he had to remind himself that the Cup was the bigger prize.

He tried distracting himself where he could during the off-season. He met up with an ex of his when he was back in Colorado for training, met him at the bar new Colorado College’s campus where they first met, blew him in the restroom like he did the first time they met, and let him take him home like the first time they met. It had been fun but Jaden only had two weeks to use the facilities - he definitely could have had longer if he had wanted - and he had other obligations. 

He went on a couple of golf trips with his boys, got stuck paying the bill twice, and let them distract him. Brayden, and he really was Jaden’s favorite Schenn, knew better than to ask him and kept anyone else from asking him. Patrick was a chapter in Jaden’s life that was done. Besides, Patrick had moved on fairly easily so it’s not like he was as affected by the breakup as Jaden had been.

He had not expected to run into Patrick, his girlfriend, and Jonathan Toews in a bar in DC after having to stand behind an idiot who somehow managed to butcher Petro’s name worse than Pierre McGuire. He had stopped short when he saw Patrick enter and had instantly started planning how he could sneak out of the bar undetected and at the same time not have his teammates worry. Because he loved them, but they were annoying when they worried about him. Because he was fine. He didn’t need anyone to look out for him. Ever. He was the one who looked out for other people. He never allowed it to be the other way around.

He was at the table alone for a minute before Toews came up to him, leaning casually on the table like they were actually friends. Jaden kept his gaze focused on the tabletop, because if he didn’t he would end up looking at Patrick and he couldn’t handle that.

“Long time, no see.” Toews greeted, lifting his beer to his lips.

“Well, I don’t spend my free time in Chicago or Manitoba, so I don’t see how we could have run into each other,” Jaden responded, spinning his half-full bottle around just to have something to occupy his hands with.

“How have you been?” 

“We’re not friends, Toews, you don’t have to act like we are. Just say what you came over here to say so I can slip out of here without anyone noticing.”

“Her name’s Heather.” Jonathan gestured over to where Patrick was helping her play pool.

“She seems good for him.” Jaden replied, “And he can be with her publically.”

“She's not you.” Jonathan responded, which Jaden was kind of thankful for because he really did not want to have to come up with any other positives about her.

“What?” Jaden looked over at Toews for the first time since he joined him at the table.

“You have to know that Patrick is still stuck on you.” Jonathan was giving him a look that said he should know that information and Jaden definitely did not know that information.

“I think you’re imagining things.” Jaden responded, gesturing to the happy couple with his beer bottle, “He’s happy. And she is every stereotype of a hockey player’s girlfriend. I’m sure she’ll be the perfect addition to the Blackhawks’ WAG group. She can wear his jersey and cheer him on and be in the same city and be able to focus all of her energy on him. She’s the easy answer.”

“True,” Jonathan nodded, “and she also didn’t rip his heart out and crush it. But he likes a challenge and I know that he’s still hung up on you. He was so happy the first time you guys slept together. He had a crush on you for a while before he made his move.”

“I’m not talking about this with you.” Jaden cut off whatever else Jonathan was going to say, “I’m not talking about this with anyone. He’s moved on and he’s happy. So…”

Before Toews could say anything else, Jaden pushed himself away from the table and headed to the side door to slip out.

“Draw the short straw?” Jaden asked as he felt more than saw Steener fall into step next to him.

“Won Rock, Paper, Scissors.” Alexander replied.

“Won?”

“Kid,” Steener sighed, “you got a lot of us worried.” 

Tugging Jaden’s arm, Steener pulled them in the direction of a line of Cherry Blossoms on the water. It was hot and muggy and Jaden did not really want to be outside but he also wasn’t in the habit of arguing with Steener, so he let the vet pull him where he wanted. He found himself sitting on a bench, looking out at some body of water. He didn’t know DC well enough to know what it was or where he was, but he trusted Steener to know how to get them back to the hotel so they could catch the bus to the baseball game that night.

Alexander let them sit in silence for a couple of minutes before saying, “You're in love with him, aren't you?”

And Jaden didn’t need to ask what Alexander was talking about because of course his team knew he still wasn’t over Patrick, despite the mask he kept in place since his walls stood no chance against them. So, instead of lying (which he never did, not to Steener, never to Steener), he swallowed and took a deep breath before saying, “Yes... yea.”

“You gonna tell him?”

“No.” Jaden shook his head, “No. What would be the point? He’s happy. He has a person on his arm that he can show off, be seen with. He couldn’t have that with me. He’s good enough to survive being the first out active NHL player but I’m not.”

“We would have your back, Jay. You know we would have your back.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Jaden shrugged, “He’s moved on, he’s over me. Besides, we couldn’t have lasted, so it really wouldn’t have been worth the drama.”

“Jaden…”

“He told me he loved me. I couldn’t say it back. I tried. I tried so many times. I thought that maybe the fact that I couldn’t say meant that I didn’t feel that way, that I didn’t love him. It made it easier for me to end things. To save myself from the pain of Patrick realizing that he didn’t really love me. That he just said it in the moment. We did have really good sex together and he’s a talker, sooo…”

“Come here, kid,” Alexander sighed, pulling Jaden in and tucking him into his side, letting them sit in silence because feelings were exhausting for Jaden and he wasn’t going to make the younger man talk anymore. 

“For what it’s worth,” he spoke up after letting them sit in silence for another five minutes, “I think you should tell him. Just to get it off of your chest. Because you carry so much weight on your shoulders, you don’t have to add this to it.”

Jaden didn’t reply, just stayed tucked under Steener’s arm until Petro texted them that they needed to head back to the hotel to get the bus to the ball game.

“Okay,” Steener grinned, “Stop thinking about Chicago and focus that energy on Team STL tonight, okay?”

Jaden laughed and let himself be pulled up, ready to spend the evening letting his boys distract him.

The season continued and he was really tired of hearing the surprise in the media’s voices that they weren’t suffering from a Stanley Cup hangover. He didn’t remember hearing any shock after Washington won it the year before, after places like Chicago, or Pittsburgh, or LA won it. He was really fucking tired of his team and city being looked down on. 

But he was also really fucking proud of how his team was doing, thankful they weren’t having another nightmarish start. And as much as he tried not to think about Patrick and the stupid feelings that Patrick elicited, he couldn’t. So after they beat Chicago in their second meet-up of the year, Jaden showered, dressed, and headed to the visitor’s locker room.

And if Patrick looked surprised to see him, he hid it quickly.

“Hi,” Jaden breathed, taking Patrick in. He looked good. Better and happier than he ever looked with Jaden - at least in photos. Right now he looked….something.

“Hi,” Patrick responded, stepping closer to Jaden. He reached a hand out but something flashed across his face and he let his arm drop to his side again, “How are you?”

“I just… I needed to tell you something,” Jaden took a deep breath and met Patrick’s eyes, “I love you. I'm in love with you. And, I know I don't really have any right to say that to you. And also, I know you're in a relationship. Hum. And I'm happy for you, I really am, I just feel like if I didn't tell you how I felt I would literally go insane. And, that's it.”

Patrick just stared at Jaden with an unreadable expression, trying to form words, and Jaden gave him a sad, tight smile and turned around, making his way to his car.

“Jay!” Patrick yelled after him but Jaden couldn’t bring himself to turn around and Patrick didn’t make an effort to run after him.

Jaden didn’t stop until he was in his car, bent over the steering wheel, trying to push off his breakdown until he was home. He jumped when his door was pulled open and he turned to see Schenner trying to look unimpressed but failing and looking extremely concerned.

“Come on,” Brayden prompted, pulling him from the car and directing him over to the passenger side, “I’ll drive you home.”

Jaden knew better than to argue with Schenner. They had known each other since they were kids and Schenner knew when he was about to shatter.

And Jaden was very good at holding it together until he was in the privacy of his own home or behind a locked door of some kind.

“Wanna talk about it?” Brayden asks once they’re inside.

And Jaden apparently doesn’t want to talk about it so much that he breaks down completely, Brayden catching him then just like he had always been there to catch him, through every heartbreak, every twist in the road. Jaden has always known that if he so much as stumbles, Brayden will be there to catch him, no matter where they are.

So he lets himself cling to Brayden and he lets himself actually cry over Patrick, over his own stubbornness and stupidity, over his tendency to run away when things get real. And Brayden doesn’t say anything, just hugs him tighter and tries not to let himself cry - because if one thing can set him off, it’s Jaden crying. 

It’s not like he didn’t see this coming. He had, frankly, been anticipating it for a while, since shortly after Jaden had ended things with Patrick. So he did what he did best. He texted his fiancee after the game that he would be staying at Jaden’s and would be home after morning skate and waited by his car for Jaden to leave.

When Jaden seemed to have run out of tears for the time being, he sat him down on the couch and headed into the kitchen, pulling out the cookie dough ice cream that was Emergencies Only and the Brayden would never tell anyone was always in Jaden’s freezer, two spoons, and heading back out to the living room.

“Wanna change before we put on a movie?” he asked.

Jaden nodded and headed up to his room while Brayden headed to the guest room he had crashed in on more than one occasion to pull out his change of clothes that just lived in the room.

They spent the night polishing off the ice cream and watching “Titanic” because Jaden apparently wanted to get all of his crying for the year out that night, before passing out together on the couch.

Brayden woke up to the smell of eggs cooking and a crick in his neck from the arm of the couch.

“I think we’re officially too big to be sleeping on the couch together.” Jaden’s small smile evident in his voice.

“Unfortunately, I think I agree.” Brayden groaned, pulling himself off of the couch.

Brayden poured himself a cup of coffee and then made himself comfortable on one of the barstools at the kitchen island, “How are you feeling?”

“Better.” Jaden didn’t meet his eyes, “Sorry, about that, by the way.”

“Don’t be.” Brayden rolled his eyes before grinning, “Besides, I get to lord it over the Steener and Petro.”

Jaden just rolled his eyes.

“In all seriousness, don’t apologize.” Brayden fixed his liney with a hard look, “You’re allowed to be sad. You’re allowed to show it. You hide so much of how you’re feeling from everyone. It makes us worry about you sometimes. Especially the older guys, who still see you as a little rookie.”

“It’s just hard.” Jaden responded, “I don’t… I don’t do well with emotions. I don’t do well with dealing with other peoples’ in relation to me. I don’t do well dealing with my own. I don’t do well talking about how I feel. Why do you think my parents wanted me to see a therapist after Mandi passed away?”

“It’s never too late, Jay.”

“God, she would have been so disappointed in how I handled the Patrick situation...how I’m currently handling the Patrick situation.”

“Jay, nothing you could have done would ever have disappointed Mandi. She thought the world of you. Always knew you were going to do great things. And, yeah, she wouldn’t have been happy with how you’ve handled all things Patrick Kane in the past year, but she would have understood that you’re scared, that you didn’t want to give him something he could hold over your head, but she would have helped you deal. And she would have gotten you talk about it every step of the way.”

“I know. And maybe if I had her still, I wouldn’t have screwed everything up.” Jaden looked back down at the pan.

Brayden didn’t respond, nothing he said would have been helpful. Instead, he stood up and pulled a couple plates down, the two of them eating in silence before getting ready and heading to the rink.

And everything was going fine. As usual, Jaden was the first on the ice, working with Otter and just taking shots on the empty net from various angles and distances. It was going fine, all signs of any cracks in Jaden’s walls appeared to be smoothed over. Until Dunner opened his fat mouth.

Petro didn’t catch all of it, but he did catch the part where Dunner said that he heard from a friend of a friend that Kane was probably going to propose to his girlfriend.

“Excuse me.” Jaden gave a tight smile and pushed away from the wall, skating hard for the other end of the ice and beginning to shoot much harder than he normally did.

“Idiot.” Sammy glared at his housemate.

“How was I supposed to know Kane would be a trigger all these years later?” Dunner asked, looking almost as shocked as everyone else.

“A year later.” Colton corrected, giving Dunner an unimpressed look.

“And he is, like, right back in.” Brayden added, pushing away from the wall, stealing the puck from Jaden when he reached him and giving a challenging look. 

“I know what you’re doing,” Jaden huffed. Nevertheless, he took off after Brayden when the taller man raced away.

Dunner muttered an apology after they stopped to catch a breath and Jaden rubbed his helmet and facewashed him before grinning.

After practice, Petro lured Jared into coming over to his with the promise of baby Petros and Jaden’s weakness had always been kids and yet he never saw the traps coming.

When Jaden was situated on the floor with Evelyn happily in his lap and Theo and Oliver each showing Jaden their new favorite toys (including the Louie plushes Jaden had brought them last time he was over). Once he had been thoroughly lulled into a false sense of security, Petro pounced.

“So,” he leaned forward from where he was sitting on the couch, “Jayne is helping put together this singles event. Lock and Key, I think?”

“Petro,” Jaden warned, narrowing his eyes.

“I just want you to be happy. And, if Kane has moved on, then you should get to. That’s all.”

“Yeah, well, I was the one who ended things so it’s not like I didn’t expect him to move on. Find someone who makes him happy...happier than he was with me, anyway. Who can be more open with their emotions because I am not programmed that way. I’m difficult and closed off. And he deserves someone who isn’t.”

“And you deserve to find your own happiness.” Alex replied, “Come to Jayne’s event. It’s exclusive, there are masks, and no one will know you were there or know who you left with.”

“Petro,” Jaden sighed, “I've gone through enough heartbreaks for two lifetimes. I don't want that anymore.”

“So you’re just going to be single forever? You’re going to spend your whole life miserable and scared of getting hurt?”

“It beats this empty, hollow feeling I’ve been stuck with since Patrick let me walk away. Since I saw that first picture of him and Heather and every other picture after that.”

He did realize he had started crying until Evelyn looked up at him and clumsily waved her hand over his face to try to clear them away while cooing at him, attempting to mimic the way he comforted her and her brothers.

“Jaden, you deserve to be happy. However way you get there, it doesn’t matter. Think about coming to the Event.”

“When is it?” Jaden asked.

“The Thursday of All-Star Weekend. You’re getting back from Cabo the day before.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“That’s all I ask.”

“Now can I go back to playing with your kids without you making me talk about feelings?”

“Whatever you want, Schwartzy.”

“Thank you.”

When Jaden finally leaves Petro’s he’s lured over to the Bozaks for “Saski Night” and he should have seen through that as well. Would have if Molly didn’t text him and Schenner at least three times a month for these. And Bozie’s dad is in town and Jaden always enjoys Mitch’s company.

“So,” Molly says as she sits down next to Jaden and hands him a glass of as Tyler and Mitch carolle the kids outside and that is Jaden’s first clue of where this is going, “you and Alex talk?”

And there it is.

“He told me about Jayne’s thing she’s planning.” Jaden replied.

“Lock and Key.” Molly filled in like she believed Jaden hadn’t remembered the name of the Event. 

“Is that that thing where half the room is given a lock and the other is given a key and you have to try to find that match and that’s supposed to be the person you have to spend the rest of the night with?” Jaden tried to keep the judgement out of his voice.

“You spend the rest of the event with them. You don’t have to go home with them, Jay.” Molly laughed lightly but her face told him she definitely picked up on something he was hoping she wouldn’t, especially as Tyler, Brayden, and Kelsey joined them, “What’s this face you’re making?”

“What face?”

“This scrunchy.” Molly replied, waving her free hand at his face.

“It’s just… the concept doesn’t seem...right.”

“Explain.”

“It makes it seem like as long as you find the right key, everything is supposed to work out, right? But life is more complicated than that. I used to think that my one special lock needed to be like super aggressive, and come from a long line of Adriatic royalty, or have a beard, and be really into the woods.” Jaden responded after a minute of collecting his thoughts. Molly raised her eyes at the list he just made and one look at Schenner confirmed that one or more of Jaden’s exs fit that description, or part of it. 

He took a deep breath before continuing, keeping his gaze focused on his wine, “Then I realized that sometimes, a special little lock can come along, that you didn’t think would fit because it didn’t look, or act, like the lock you thought you needed. So instead of actually giving it a real chance, you throw it away because it was too nice, and it liked you too much, and cared. And now that lock has found another key and you are so happy for it. And you just need to accept that and find a new lock.”

Molly bit her lip and pulled him into a hug, “You’ll find it, Jaden. I know your circumstances are different and it would be so much easier if you weren’t a professional athlete. But your lock is out there. You don’t have to go to Jayne’s event. She would understand. But you deserve to be happy and you haven’t been.”

“That’s what everyone’s been telling me.” Jaden replied, “I’ll be okay. I didn’t...I didn’t let my break-up with Patrick bother me after and with the season, there wasn’t time. And off-season was busier than usual so I didn’t have a ton of spare time to think about him. And I had some hook-ups. I hooked up with an ex, which wasn’t my brightest moment. And then Patrick and Heather got together not long after we broke up. And he’s so happy with her.”

“Jaden -” Tyler tried to come up with something to say.

“He’s happier with her than I could ever make him. And when we were in DC, they came into that bar we were in, with Toews, I guess they had just played the Caps the night before, I don’t know. But Toews came over and told me that Patrick was still hung up on me and I had to get out of there. Because it’s one thing to see them together on Instagram but it’s a completely different thing to see it right of me and have the person who knows Patrick better than anyone tell me that after I decided to be happy that he found someone else..

“And I could never make the words ‘I love you’ come out of my mouth when we were together but - somehow - I was able to make those words come out of my mouth after we played them last month, the second time. And he let me walk away again. And I had no right to expect him to stop me this time. He didn’t stop me last time, didn’t run after me, didn’t try to stop me from ending things because I was terrified.

“And everytime I think about trying to move past him, my heart hurts. Because I don’t want anyone but him and I realized it too late and now he’s moved on and I’m just…. I feel so alone all the time.”

And, like always, Schenner is there and Kelsey gently takes Jaden wine glass and ushers Molly and Tyler out so Jaden and crack in semi-private.

“He’ll be okay,” Kelsey told them, “Brayden will put him back together.”

After ten minutes, Jaden pulled himself together again and Mitch and the kids were back inside, Blake climbing into Jaden’s lap and thoroughly distracting him from any thoughts he was having.

He hooked up with someone in Cabo. They met in a bar, he looked a little like Patrick, and Jaden brought him back to his room and let not-Patrick fuck him into the mattress then - after he had left - let his walls crumble. In the morning, he met the guys for breakfast with his walls back up and happy mask in place and beat them in each round of golf they played and none of them called him on his shit. Because they were the best and they knew when to press and when not to press.

And when he got back to his place, he changed into his pajama pants and a Blackhawks hoodie that Patrick must have left at some point that still seemed to carry his smell, and crawled under his blankets and let the exhaustion over take him.

Petro loved the All-Star Game. It was always fun and he always felt honored to be able to represent the team he loved so much. And for it to be in this city that had become home was just icing on the cake.

The part that was usually a little awkward was the night out before Skills that Team Central usually did. Mostly because of the Chicago representatives. Alex wasn’t going to say he wasn’t relieved when Benn didn’t get voted in. And it’s not like he hated Jamie Benn but he wasn’t a fan. He was thankful he didn’t need to interact with the other man off the ice. Especially since in their last game against Dallas, Benn thought he could take a run at Jaden and not have anyone object strongly. Benn was a big guy and Jaden definitely wasn’t. He wasn’t fragile but Benn could have really hurt him if Jaden didn’t have his speed.

But this year, things with Kane may be a little worse. He and Pear came into the League around the same time and they didn’t like each other. Because no matter where David went when he left St. Louis, he still bled a little Blue and he still played Chicago like a Blue. And Pear wasn’t the most popular guy in the League anyway. But he seemed to be in a good mood.

They were in a bar in Clayton, close to the hotel the players not from St. Louis were staying in and Pear was bouncing around the way he always did when they went out as a team. Petro nodded a thanks to O’Ry, who had been keeping an eye on David and making sure he behaved himself but also didn’t drink too much since he did drive there.

And usually Petro wasn’t the awkward one at these gatherings. He was a people person. He could see the person behind the rivalry. But everytime he looked at Kane, he saw Jaden’s lost, heartbroken on his living room floor, distracting himself with the triplets because it was all he could do to keep from breaking apart completely. And he couldn’t push that image from his mind.

“He told you, didn't he?” Kane finally broke the awkward silence that had settled over them when everyone else had gotten up for various reasons.

“Yes,” Petro nodded, “he told me.”

“It just...caught me off guard.” Kane looked down at the table, "’I love you’. It just…”

“Yes, that is an emotional depth that is very out of character for him.” Petro replied, moving to stand up and go get another beer just to get away from this conversation, “So...I can understand why that would be weird for you. So, I should be -”

“I broke up with Heather.” 

And that was not what Alex expected to be the next words out of Kane’s mouth, so he eased himself back down into the chair and said, “So I should probably stay then...for a minute.”

“I don’t know why I’m telling you this because you’re his captain, his friend, but you know him. Probably better than most people do because he doesn’t really let people know him.” Kane huffed out a laugh, “I had wanted him for a long time, you know? And when I had him...we both made mistakes. And I didn’t make it clear than I wanted our relationship to be real, defined. And when I would tell Jaden I loved him and he never said it back, I told myself that that was okay. Because Jaden doesn’t talk about his emotions.

“And when he ended it, I should have run after him. I should have insisted we sit down and talk because I know what scared looks like and he looked fucking terrified. And I knew that he had been hurt many times before and that he was probably protecting himself. But I was an idiot and I let him walk away.

“And then I met Heather. And she was nice, and beautiful, and I didn’t have to worry about anyone catching us, and she was fun. But she was always missing something. She wasn’t stubborn, she didn’t fight me over what to watch on Netflix, she didn’t chirp me over my awful cooking skills, she didn’t have late night phone calls - dead tired from a game but brain still working a miles a minute and just not able to sleep but not having anything important to say, I couldn’t talk hockey with her, she never seemed to really fit into my house. She wasn’t Jaden.

“And then Jaden told me he loved me. About a month ago, after the game. He was waiting outside the vistor’s room, and he told me he loved me but he knew I had moved on and he was happy for me. But he looked so broken and scared when he told me - looked so much like he did when he ended things - and then he walked away. And, like an idiot, I let him walk away.

“And then I broke up with Heather. Well, I continued to lie to myself and Jonny told me I really needed to stop and I broke up with her right before going to the airport to come here. And I know I shouldn’t ask you this and you don’t have to tell me but does Jaden… I mean has Jaden -”

“I don’t know everything that goes on in Jaden’s head. If you want that, you’d have to ask Schenner, but,” Alex raised a hand to cut Kane’s interruption off, “I know that your name has come up in conversation. Every single day. For the past six months. I know that he is different now. Not that different, obviously. Different enough to know that he made a mistake. And that you have got it. If you want it.”

Patrick blinked at him a couple times and nodded, “Thank you, Petro.”

“But if anything happens that causes Jaden to ever look at me the way he has so many times in the past six months when your name has been brought up, I will let Schenner kill you. Or Borts. Someone will kill you. Because Jaden is much more fragile than he lets on.”

“I know.” Patrick gave a soft smile and stood up, ordering an Uber, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good luck.” Alex nodded, standing up and joining the group at the Pool tables.

“Where’s Patrick going?” Seguin asked as Kane left.

“To have a long overdue conversation.” Alex replied, looking over at his boys. Binner nodded in response, Pear looked like he wanted to be angry, and O’Ry looked relieved.

“I don’t wanna know.” Nate shook his head.

Patrick stood in front of the door to Jaden’s condo trying to ignore the nerves that threatened to make him get right back into the Uber before it could leave. But he took a deep breath and knocked. His breath caught in his throat when the door opened and he saw Jaden in his hoodie.

Jaden looked at him confused, “What -?”

“My name's Patrick.” Patrick started, taking in everything that was Jaden Schwartz, “I'm newly single. And I'd be kidding myself if I told you I hadn't been wanting to do this every single day for a year.”

He reached out and pulled Jaden gently to him, hands on his hips, and kissed him. His body relaxed in relief when Jaden immediately kissed him back, looping his arms around his shoulders. All too soon, Patrick pulled back, resting his head on Jaden’s forehead and they both stood there, eyes closed, breathing each other in.

“I love you,” Jaden breathed out.

“I love you, too, Jay,” Patrick replied.

“Do you have to be anywhere?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Stay the night?”

“Yes.”

Jaden smiled at him and pulled him inside.

They didn’t fuck. In a stroke of emotional maturity, Jaden had suggested they talk everything out, leave all their cards on the table so they could make sure they were both on the same page. 

And Jaden gives him a lift Enterprise the next day for Open Ice and Patrick insists that he at least come in since he drove all the way there even though everything in St. Louis is, like, twenty minutes from downtown. And Jaden lets himself be talked into joining Patrick on the ice and only lets him be distracted from Patrick for, like, twenty minutes when David and Mason Perron step onto the ice and the child excitedly yells his name.

Who knows what the future has in store for them, but Jaden promises not to hide from Patrick and Patrick promises not to let Jaden walk away again. And that’s all they can really do right now.


End file.
